The King's Adviser
by Fairyhaven13
Summary: This is based off of a dream I had. A couple hundred years into the future of the Sonic Universe Earth, it is time again to choose a new adviser for the king. The king's identity? Shadow the Hedgehog. The main rivals for the task? A snobby cat with Shadow's ego and an overly quiet fox with Shadow's intelligence. Also, this has an inside look at the Backgrounds of Shadow and Silver.
1. Chapter 1- Enter the King

**Gah! I almost forgot to put this here! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything that has anything to do with Sonic at all, except for fan characters. **

**Phew. I remembered. I wouldn't want the same thing that happened to A Clone Apart to happen to me. By way, A Clone Apart was a YouTube Star Wars fanfiction based in the game Battlefront 2, and it stopped because the writer got sued. I think.**

**Anyways, this is based off of a dream I had that I really liked. Sorry if the first chapter's short, and sorry if it's cliche at all. Please, tell me if there's anything at ALL I can improve, and I'll do my best. Or at least tell you if and why I can't. **

**This story's going to try to explain a few things in the Sonic game series, mainly, What happens after Sonic dies and other characters, like Shadow, don't? Who were Silver's parents? And, who the heck did that to Silver's hair?! (Although I think he kinda looks fuzzy and cute).**

**Please enjoy and review.**

**Update: Yay, my first review! Thank you for the advice, explodinghead. I'll make sure not to repeat myself so much. =D  
**

It is 200 years in the future. The date is June 23, 2212. It seemed only fitting that the anniversary of the kingdom of Earth would fall on the old hero, Sonic the Hedgehog's birthday.

Since he had passed away just over a hundred years ago, the peoples of Earth decided that they would be safer if they united into one kingdom and elected their king. Dr. Eggman passed away a while before Sonic had, being much older than him, and, consequently, left his robots to run wild. They were weak alone; mere nuisances. Unfortunately, Metal Sonic returned from the underground he had been hiding and planning in, and began to lead the robots himself in place of Dr. Eggman around 2062. His attacks were so strong that the people- humans and animals alike- all agreed they needed someone to lead them who would not back down, and who would be unlikely to die any time soon. The obvious choice was Shadow the Hedgehog, and he was thus voted in.

Shadow had not wanted the job at first. It came with too many ceremonies, responsibilities, and trinkets. However, whenever he started to think that he should quit, he would remember his old friend Maria. Maria- the girl who had been his closest companion on space colony ARK; Maria, who, as the soldiers where shooting her down when they made that terrible mistake, begged Shadow to promise to protect the world; to give people a chance to be happy. If Shadow quit, he would be letting the world down- letting ___her _down. So he chose to continue to be king.

On this particular June 23, Shadow stood staring out of the window in his chambers, waiting. He wore, in addition to his old gloves, shoes, and rings: a crown and a cape. He used to think the extra garments were useless, but most people thought them to be a symbol of his leadership and insisted he wear them. He eventually got used to it.

The door opened. In walked in Silver the Hedgehog. Silver was Shadow's royal temporal expert. This meant that he oversaw anything that had to do with the past, the future, and most importantly, time traveling. It was a big job, and Silver had gone on several missions to the past already. Although Silver was only fourteen years old, and somewhat naive, he was very skilled. Not to mention that he was born with a natural form of Chaos Energy- radiation that came off of the super powerful Chaos Emeralds- to manipulate objects, move them, and make them float. That had gotten him promotions in the castle quick.

"Are you ready for the judging, sir?" Silver asked. Shadow turned around. He nodded. He never spoke much. Shadow headed for the door, and Silver followed. As they walked down the splendid halls, coated in decorative carvings, pictures, and rare and antique furniture, Silver tried, as he always did, to make small talk.

"What number is this?" he asked. Shadow glanced at him.

"Four."

"Wow. You're fourth adviser already. It's weird to think that you've had advisers since before I was born." Shadow stopped and gave Silver a strange look. After a silent minute, Silver coughed awkwardly, and Shadow rolled his eyes and continued on. Silver sighed. He should have known by now, after living for several years in the castle already. Small talk ___never _worked with Shadow.

Finally, they had gone down two grand staircases, five bejeweled hallways, and one golden elevator. They turned a corner and came into a large auditorium. There several administrators sat in front of a long table. Some were human, some were animals, and all of them were old and experienced. On the other side of the table sat a long row of appliers for the roll of new adviser. These were also diverse in being animal and human, but they were also of any age between fifteen and fifty. Shadow took his seat at the center of the table, and Silver sat down to his left.

"This is going to be so exciting!" Silver whispered. "I've never helped to judge for the adviser before!"

To Shadow's right, one of the slightly more elderly and much less enthusiastic mouse administrators leaned towards one of his rabbit friends and whispered, "Remind me why that naive little temporal expert is helping to judge for something this important."

"Sshh!" His friend snapped. "He may be young, but he is a hard worker, not to mention one of the King's favorites. Stop complaining- you're making King Shadow glare!" Sure enough, when the administrator looked up, he found Shadow glaring right in front of him. The mouse jumped. Shadow turned back to the front after a minute.

The multiple appliers were talking, whispering, yelling, and giggling among themselves. Shadow cleared his throat. They didn't notice. He tried again, a little louder. The group still didn't notice. Shadow grew irritated. He yelled, "Chaos Spear!" and a jagged bolt of Chaos Energy appeared in his hand. None of the administrators who were paying attention were surprised at this, since Shadow was connected to Chaos Energy in a similar way to what Silver was- the main difference being that he was made, not born, and that his abilities consisted of powerful attacks and not telekinesis.

He threw the bolt a few feet in front of the row of appliers. It exploded with a loud, electrical, ___zzzzt! _All of the appliers jumped much like the mouse administrator had done minutes before. They stared at the black spot on the marble floor, and then at Shadow.

"Now," Shadow started, then stopped. To his right, Silver was chuckling a little from the scene. Shadow glared at him. Silver immediately quieted. This was yet another thing he should have been used to since he was living in the castle- Shadow's constant glares.

The ebony hedgehog spoke again. "Now... let's begin the judging."


	2. Chapter 2- The Testing begins

**Next chapter in my story! Again, thanks to explodinghead for reminding me not to repeat my words- and also for being my first reviewer. Yay!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything that has to do with Sonic. Anything at all. I only own my fancharacters. I really wish A Clone Apart and that Monster's Inc. fanfiction Homecoming would keep going. Yadda yadda.**

**Hey, look, I remembered my disclaimer this time!**

All of the administrators and applicants looked up at Shadow, who was standing at the judgement platform. He had just announced that the judging was about to get started. After waiting a few minutes for the group to quiet down (specifically, the rabbit and mouse next to him, who quickly stopped murmuring once they realized they were being glared at- _again_), he spoke again.

"In case you don't know how the past advisers have been chosen, I will tell you now. You're going to take some tests to find out how much you know and what you would do in certain situations. The ones who have the best answers will be taken to the next series of tests." He then sat back down, looking relieved because he didn't have to talk anymore. Shadow never liked to give speeches. Everyone sat there for a minute before a crane a few seats away from Shadow hastily stood up, obviously having forgotten his queue.

"Yes, umm..." The crane stammered. "The next part is, uh..." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to gather himself, then continued, "I'm Gordon Crane, in charge of the advisory section of the Kingdom. Er... as you all should know, I am _not_ the actual adviser." He paused again. The applicants were glancing at each other, and the mouse administrator whispered to his rabbit friend about Gordon forgetting his lines. Gordon cleared his throat loudly. "Yes, well, I just help with finding who would be the right adviser. I'm the expert on what you're supposed to be like, you might say." He gave a little nervous laugh. Now more people around him were whispering. He cleared his throat again and stood up straighter, trying to look important. "You're all going to move through that door on your right into the next room to take the test. This is one at a time, mind you, and when one person is done, he or she will leave out the back door and be escorted to the hover-mobile lot and the aerial tram adjacent so they can immediately go home. There is to be no communication concerning the tests between applicants, and anyone who breaks that rule will be disqualified." The crane puffed out his chest and took an enormous breath, like he had been holding it this whole time. "You'll notice that there are three doors on the right. All three have tests, and while you will go in one door (I repeat, one at a time) there will actually be three testing at once. All three will be escorted to the lot separately. No cheating, no talking, and no breaks once you get in. Is that understood for everyone?"

No one said anything. Gordon sat down. He picked up a large glass of water set in front of him on the long table and drank the whole thing.

An elderly human man who looked about sixty stood up and separated the applicants into three groups, and then made them stand in three straight lines in front of the doors. Then he stood watch while a fifty-year-old human woman took her spot at one of the doors and the two mouse and rabbit administrators from earlier both went to work in the others. One by one, the applicants were filed through the doors. The administrators still sitting worked on the future reports and tests which they were doing in their sections, and Shadow and Silver quietly left to wait for the first tests to be over.

The two hedgehogs walked down the hallway, through two large, intricately decorated double doors that were covered in gold and red. Outside of this was the entry into the sunlit palace garden that was accessible for all the people in the city surrounding.

Silver was surprised. Shadow was more into nature than he showed. One might have thought he was just dutifully walking through, except for all the pauses he made. He stopped at some geraniums to the side and fingered their blossoms. He picked up some stones that had been thrown into the path, and laid them next to a bush, like a border. He even stopped and seemed to be enjoying the sunshine.

The pale hedgehog following him tried not to look at him strangely. Maybe Shadow was just releasing some stress? Silver happened to have a special love for nature himself, and had planted a large variety of flowers around the old home he used to live in before moving into the castle. It just greatly surprised him that someone so introverted and... well... _grumpy_ as the ebony hedgehog would actually like nature.

Shadow stopped at a willow tree surrounded by pale pink roses. Underneath the overhanging branches was a gray stone bench, with colorful mosaic on top. It was a shaded and very pleasant place. The hedgehog sat down on the bench, and Silver activated his Chaos Energy and hovered up to the branch above Shadow to sit down.

"So... what now?" Silver asked.

"We wait for them to be done," Shadow answered. They sat in silence for a few minutes.

Silver watched the long willow branches blow in the breeze, brushing against the little stream that surrounded the garden. Fish swam by in this expertly taken care of water, their wet scales glittering in the sun. Some people passed by on the cobblestone pathways that crisscrossed the park, glancing at the king and temporal expert, whispering to each other as they went. They were probably just as surprised as Silver was to see their less-than-cheerful king out relaxing, especially in the garden, of all places.

Silver looked down at the flowers beneath him; the roses were planted very precisely, in a perfect circle around the tree. Some of the pink blossoms were edged with yellow, or a deeper red. Little bits of dew drizzled down the petals, making them shine more than the fish, even in the shade. Obviously, their owner considered them precious.

Momentarily, he spoke again. "Who planted these roses here?"

Shadow glanced up at him. "Me," he said quietly.

_"You?"_ Silver exclaimed in surprise.

"They're Maria Roses." The explanation was simple and quick, and Silver nodded knowingly, no longer bewildered by any of Shadow's actions. Everyone in the Kingdom knew about Maria Robotnik, Shadow's old friend who had been like a sister to him.

She was most likely Shadow's only friend at the time, too. They did everything together, dreaming of when they could leave space, where Maria was confined because of a disease she had, and what they would do on Earth. When a rumor spread of how dangerous the experiments were becoming on the space colony, where Shadow was created, soldiers had stormed the place, shooting or arresting anyone they could. Maria had been among the fatalities. Just before she died, she had pushed Shadow into an escape pod. Even though a soldier had shot her in the back, she had resisted the pain long enough to pull the lever that would sent the pod out- and long enough to ask Shadow to fulfill the dream they had talked about together; to help the Earth, and to give the people the chance to be happy.

Considering how close they had been, and how crucial she was in changing his life, it wasn't surprising that Shadow would make a little memorial in the garden for her.

Silver looked down at Shadow again. He was giving him another strange look, like he had given him earlier that day. It wasn't quite a glare, but it wasn't far from it.

Silver showed a confuse frown. "What? What'd I do?"

Shadow shook his head as if he was trying to get rid of a thought, and turned to look back at the garden. Silver shrugged. Shadow must have a headache or something. That made Silver start wondering. Could Ultimate Lifeforms get headaches? Not unless they had been made without the immunity. Professor Gerald, Maria's grandfather and Shadow's creator, had probably thought of giving Shadow immunities to lots of diseases. But, would he have thought of something as trivial as a headache?

As Silver was thinking these rambling thoughts, and as Shadow was thinking thoughts about Maria, and neither of them were paying attention to the cobblestone pathway, two important figures passed by. One of them was Gordon Crane. The other was a bright orange cat, with golden eyes. He had three thick bangs- almost like quills- sticking out in a horizontal line along his forehead, and a spiky tail, and dark red tips on each. There was a haughty and royal look on his face as he walked next to Gordon, as if Gordon was his inferior.

"Laid it on a little thick, don't you think?" he whispered to the crane.

"Hush! Do you _realize_ who's over there?" Gordon whispered back, gesturing to the two daydreaming hedgehogs. The cat rolled his eyes, but said nothing more as the two continued on their way down the stone path. Three hours later, they would all be back in the auditorium for the reports on the first round of tests...

**I hope this chapter's okay. I know it's a little rambly, but I was trying to get it out of the way for my next chapter coming up. Sorry if it's a little short. I know, my last one was kind of short, too. I tried to give this one some substance and mystery, and I'll try to make the next one longer and better. Please tell me what you think, and I would welcome any suggestions!**


	3. Chapter 3- Enter Scathe and Kellie

**Alright, here's the third chapter for my series! I'm so surprised by all the support I've been getting. I know, three reviews, two follows, and two favorites won't seem like much to the people who've been on this website forever, but you try to get support when most everyone around you isn't interested in Sonic except for maybe one or two people, and all you could put stories on before was Facebook. =) I like .**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic, Shadow, Silver, or anything that has to do with Sonic, besides the things that don't. I also don't own a pet tiger. Wah.**

**I hope you enjoy this chapter! Please r&r! I'm going to try to make it a bit longer and better than the others were.**

A few hours had passed since the judging had begun. Most of the people had gone through the testing now; there were only a few left.

One of the participants waiting for her turn happened to be a brown fox. She had gotten tired of standing after about an hour, and now was sitting on the floor reading a book she had brought. It was a very large book; one of those old classics, about a thousand pages long, that only the nerdiest of book nerds can bare to read. Especially since all of the modern books of this time were holographic, and hers wasn't.

Her fur was a dark chocolate brown, with darker wavy hair on her head. Her eyes were blue, and slightly hidden behind some small reading glasses. She wore a magenta shirt, with a large, thick, rippling indigo collar, as was the fashion of the time, with a matching skirt and gloves. She wore magenta sandals, with indigo metal soles and braided indigo ribbon twirling up her ankles. Her muzzle was a yellowy-golden brown, as was the inside of her ears, and the tip of her long, bushy chocolate brown tail.

Her finger rested on the center of the yellowed page, gently sliding across as she read. Her lips mouthed the words, and her eyes widened, totally absorbed in her story, ignoring the five other people around her. They were all sitting on the floor, too, except for one character.

He was an orange cat, orange as the fruit itself. The orange fur on the sides of his head went up slightly, in the normal fashion for cats, but not nearly as much as the ancient Blaze the Cat's fur had. There were three large, stiff bangs on his forehead, so stiff they almost looked like quills, with a dark red tinge on the tips of each. His muzzle was peach, and the insides of his ears were white, as well as his stomach fur, which was shaped like an oval with a crescent of white sticking out on top. His long tail was in a stiff zig-zag shape, with bushy red at the tip. On his wrists were solid gold cuffs, with intricate designs, and on his ankles were matching anklets. He had white gloves and dark blue shoes, with black metal soles and gold designs in the blue material. His eyes were violet, and his brow continuously folded over them in a glare. One could tell that his outfit was very expensive, and his look said that he thought he was, too.

One of his boots tapped the floor in frustration, and he kept glancing at the door and giving it ugly looks. If the others who were waiting payed more attention earlier, they might have noticed that this cat, last in line, had left the building when the judging first started, and only came back a half hour ago. However, the others were too busy looking at their own watches and worrying about their tests. They couldn't care less about a random cat who had simply seen fit to take a walk while he waited.

Little did they know- this wasn't a random cat, and he hadn't been merely taking a walk. No, he had been doing much more than that.

One of the three doors where the testing was being done decided to use this time to open up. The woman who had been inside stepped out, holding an electronic notepad. Behind her, a young ferret slipped out. He had a look on his face like he had just seen the world explode. When he came out, the man who had been keeping watch over the others in line came to escort him out. The ferret followed him in a daze.

The woman ignored the distressed ferret and scanned down the list of names on her pad. Then she looked up and called, "Kellie Metre Prower, would you please step up?" Nobody answered. After waiting a few minutes, she checked the screen again and repeated, "Kellie Metre Prower! Is there anyone here named Kellie Metre Prower?"

Suddenly the fox jumped up with a yelp. Her book and her reading glasses both fell to the ground with a thump and a clatter, and she shouted out, "Frodo, _don't die!"_

Everyone turned to stare at her. She blinked a few times, then blushed, sheepishly picking up her things off the floor. "Erm.. sorry," she mumbled in a much quieter voice. "That's me, ma'am..."

The other five who were waiting rolled their eyes, and the cat let out a loud sigh full of sarcasm. The woman squinted at the fox and pursed her lips. "Yes, well," she said finally. "Come inside, please." She motioned for the door, and the fox- apparently named Kellie- bowed her head and walked inside. The woman followed, shutting the door behind her.

On the other side of the door was a small room, with sparse furniture, but no less marvelous than the rest of the castle. There was a red rug, with gold and black accents. A mahogany table with matching chairs stood in the center. The walls were a very soft, pastel red, and on the wall opposite the door were several large windows facing out towards the sunshine and garden.

"Sit down." The woman pointed to one chair, and Kellie complied. The woman sat in the second one, on the other side of the table. She set her pad down, slid her finger across to make another page appear, and poised her hands over it in a typing position. "Alright," she said. "My name is Edna Millers, and I will be your test administrator for the first portion of the Advisory Examination. Please state your name and age." Kellie opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, Edna added, "I realize that I already called your name a minute ago. However, I will need to to say it yourself for the records."

Kellie nodded. Her eyes were focused on her lap, where her hands were tightly folded. Very softly, she murmured, "Mnm Kllmtrprwr mng tntfr."

Edna sighed. Great, another one of _these_ people. "What was that?" she asked much more politely than she felt.

"Mnum kellmterprwer, mnage tentfer." The answer was slightly louder, but not by much.

"I'm sorry, but I have to be able to _hear_ what you're saying."

Kellie blushed so deeply that it seemed her fur itself had changed color. In a much clearer voice, she said, "My name's Kellie Metre Prower, and my age is twenty four."

"Thank you." Edna typed into the pad. "Now, why are you here?"

"I was hoping I might be the next adviser..."

"Why do you think you're qualified?"

"Um... well, I have the top grade in my class... and I read a lot of books, so I would know a lot about the topics I would need to advise for... I think... and also I think we might have a lot in common..."

Edna paused mid-type and glanced back at Kellie. "Excuse me?"

Kellie shuffled in her seat uncomfortably, and blushed again. "What I mean to say is... we would both know what it feels like to not have your old family around... I mean, I'm an orphan, and I don't have many friends..."

Edna sighed again. She was getting very tired of this fox's many pauses in her speech, and she seriously doubted that the King would agree that they had much in common when he saw this. Nevertheless, she continued to type and ask the questions required of her.

The questions went on like this for about a half an hour, and then Kellie was finally released. By this time she was thoroughly intimidated, and was sure that she had absolutely no chance at passing. Before the administrator who had been watching the line escorted her out, she noticed that the cat was the only one left. The others had apparently either been called in, or had left.

The cat tapped his foot impatiently and glared at Kellie's back as it disappeared around the corner. Edna stood outside her door, again scrolling through the names on her pad. She glanced at him and scrolled some more. Then she stopped and just looked at him.

"I'm sorry, sir," she said. "I can't find any more names on my list."

The cat rolled his eyes and nodded. "I know that. I'm waiting for someone."

"Waiting for someone." The voice Edna used to repeat his words showed that she obviously didn't believe it. At that moment, however, the pad in her hands let out a loud beeping noise. She looked down at it. The words, "TIME'S UP- ALERT KING SHADOW" flashed in bright red letters on the screen. Giving the cat one last doubtful look, she headed in the direction that the other administrator and Kellie had gone.

The cat sighed in relief when she left. The less people around, the better. He didn't want anything to ruin his plan. But where _was_ his accomplice?

He waited and waited. Eventually, the administrators and testers in the other two doors all left, and the lights all turned off, and still the cat waited. Noon passed, and evening came on, and the cat grew more and more impatient.

Finally, he decided to go over to the chairs that the appliers had sat in before to rest, since he had been standing for a few hours, now. Really, he had been pacing, and ranting angrily to himself in the process. He continued to rant as he sat down in one of the chairs.

"Where _is_ that birdbrain?! He should have been here _hours_ ago! I pay him _how_ much, and he goes and leaves me like this! There's no excuse for it, especially when I only just saw him earlier today. If he's not here in another hour, he is _fired! _No, more than fired! I'm gonna-"

The cat abruptly stopped his rant as one of the doors opened. He dove behind the chair he had been sitting in, crouching and folding himself down in a way that only a cat could do.

As the door opened, a band of bright yellow light illuminated the back wall. Inside the light was the silhouette of a figure. Slowly, the figure became smaller and quiet footsteps became louder as they drew closer to the center of the room, where the chairs were. Then the steps stopped. The cat folded himself in further, hoping he wouldn't be seen. Everything was silent.

Then a familiar voice broke the stillness. "Oh, d-dear! I've missed him! Why, oh why, did I have to be standing right _there_ when the King needed someone to do the records? I'm in so much trouble!"

The cat jumped out of his hiding place. "You bet you are, Gordon! Do you have any idea how long I've been waiting?!"

"Scathe!" the crane screamed, jumping so high it was a wonder he didn't start flying. He trembled in his red royal robes as the cat, aptly named Scathe, slowly stepped closer to him.

"Hours, bird! That's how long!" he hissed. "You'll be lucky if you don't get thrown in the dungeon after this!"

Gordon put up his hands in front of him, in a defensive position. "Please, sir! I can explain! I can explain!"

Scathe crossed his arms and growled, barring his teeth. "I should hope so. Anyone who keeps me waiting this long needs a _very_ good explanation." He narrowed his eyes menacingly at Gordon. The bird trembled harder.

"I do, sir! Oh, trust me, I do! And, I have some news for you, as well!" Scathe continued to glare at him. Gordon took a deep breath and turned back into his normal self: not anxious and stuttering (although still made quite a bit nervous by Scathe's glare), but very confident and precise.

"Sorry, sir..." the crane said, in a voice now clear, and smooth as silk. "It always takes me a little while to get out of character, and I've only just been able to get away from the Royalty's eyes. You remember earlier when the last interview went through? I have news of the results..."

Scathe smirked slightly, despite his anger. He sat back down in the chair and prepared himself for what would most likely be a pleasant revelation.

**Okay, what do you think so far? I tried to make it more descriptive than the last two. I know this chapter has no official characters in it, but please don't be mad at me! This was going to be much longer, but I looked at the lengths of the last two chapters and decided this might be a good place to stop, if I didn't want a short story and a chapter twice as long as the others. The part I would have added did have Shadow and Silver in it, and it will be in the next chapter, as well as Gordon's explanation. I hope I made my introductions for my characters good enough. I'll put their descriptions on my profile, and add more as the story goes so I won't spoil anything.**

**Also, you might have noticed that I gave Gordon a larger part than I may have hinted at before. I was originally just going to have him as a filler character, but decided to give him a more important roll. Please tell me what you think!**


	4. Chapter 4- Flashback: It's a Raid!

**Hi again, everyone! Thanks for all the awesome reviews I've been getting!**

**Also, the reason I've not updated in a while is because A) I have a serious procrastinating issue, and B) I was working on the first chapter for my new Santa Clause fic. Surprisingly, that chapter is ****_huge_****, and I've gotten a lot of reviews for it. I think the website deleted a bunch, though, because those were the ones that were all "uuuupppdaaaate". I don't know who that was, but I appreciate your enthusiasm, even if I just posted the story the day before the comment was posted. =D Unless the comment was posted on the same day. But, still, thanks for the reviews!**

**I'm only doing a max of two stories at a time, so none will be forgotten until they're done. I'll do more once at least one of the ones I'm working on now is done. Also, I will try my very best not to focus too much on my OCs. I know people don't like that. And, once again, I own nothing at all except for what I do own. That should cover everything in question. **

**Now back to your regularly scheduled program.**

While Kelly and Scathe had been dealing with the examinations, Shadow and Silver had relaxed by the flowers.

Silver, up on the tree branch, was slowly falling asleep. The day was just so comfortably warm, the sky so beautifully blue, and the breeze ruffled his fur and quills just so to seem like a whispering lullaby. Silver had always liked nature. Taking walks was one of his favorite things to do, just so that he could look at all the life around him. Even when he went to the past, he took time to enjoy nature. After all, there were some things in the past you just didn't see anymore in the future. Flickies, for example; they had all migrated to Angel Island, where the Nocturnus Marauders took care of the Master Emerald. Silver was surprisingly interested in flickies, and wished he could ask Sonic and his friends more about them without compromising the important missions he went on. He couldn't go on Angel Island very often with his duties.

It wasn't as if the Marauders wouldn't have liked him to visit the island. They were led by Shade the Echidna, who was ageless along with most of her clan as a side effect of being kept in the Twilight Cage for so long. She had solved most of the Marauder's inside squabbles after many years of effort, and now the clan was under her command and much stronger and wiser by result. Shade was a friend of Shadow's who had known Sonic during the time he was alive. Her friendliness- albeit a gruff kind of friendliness, since she wasn't a cheery person- was extended to all of Shadow's subjects. Had Silver any time to visit, he would most likely be welcomed with a feast of the kind that could only be served on Angel Island with it's wide variety of special fruits that grew solely in its floating soil.

Thanks to his high position, though, he was very often busy on temporal missions, and when he wasn't, he was helping with royal events. Like, now he was assisting in the judging for the next adviser. And also falling asleep.

His big gray lids slid gradually lower, until they covered his golden eyes completely, and then he was gone. Below him, Shadow barely noticed the soft snores that were now coming from the branch. He was lost in thought. His white gloved hands unconsciously fingered the images carved into the bench he sat on. They were seemingly random depictions of animals, the globe, Shadow, Professor Gerald, stars, and Maria.

Maria drew them. The pictures had come directly from the sketchbook she kept on the ARK. She had loved to draw. She didn't have many things to draw, having lived most of her life on the ARK, but she drew anyways, and was very good at it. She liked to use all manners of material, but usually colored pencils. The images on the bench were beautiful, near perfect. Shadow's only regret was that the craftsmen who made the bench couldn't capture Maria's gentle, careful, painstakingly drawn strokes she had done with her pencils. To make up for it he told the craftsmen to fill the bench with colorful mosaic tiles to bring the pictures to life.

But, while he was tracing the figures, these weren't what he was thinking about. He was thinking about the new adviser.

He was thinking about how he hoped they would be effective. His past advisers were... _alright_, but they all had major issues. His first one was an overly eager young human, always ready to brown-nose and suck up whenever he felt like it was needed. Which it never was. He was extremely annoying. Shadow didn't even know why he was chosen. He must have been wealthy or in some powerful family or something.

The next one was a very strict and stern stoat, always frowning, always going for the old fashioned rules because he thought that high expectations and extreme discipline would be best for order. He was also very annoying. He was... too much like Shadow for Shadow's liking. Sure, Shadow wasn't really old fashioned, but he was quiet and stern. He didn't realize how aggravating that could be until the stoat came along. After him, he tried to be a _little_ less stern. A little. Not much.

The third one wasn't any better. She was a bubbly and excitable chihuahua, with a horrid habit of screaming whenever she discovered something. Shadow could be in the middle of a conference and hear her earsplitting shriek behind him, only to find out she'd just found the back of her earring. Plus, she always wore yellow. Always. And not even a pleasant creamy yellow- it was a bright, blinding mustard yellow, with a matching giant sunhat. She was lucky to have retired before Shadow blew a gasket. He was sure she still thought herself to be the best adviser so far; she was that clueless.

He was determined to have a good adviser this year. He or she would have to be reasonable, and not a brown-noser, or a dictator, or a cheerleader. They would be patient with him, and he with them, and that meant they would have to not be annoying. Which was extremely hard to find in a person on Earth. Shadow doubted there was a single person who wasn't annoying at _some_ point on the planet. So, he would have to settle for a _mostly_ not annoying person.

They would have to be smart, too. The job was to be an adviser, after all. They had to be able to advise. Even a near-perfect Ultimate Life Form like Shadow wouldn't know everything- as much as he hated to admit it. But, the need for someone knowledgeable and quick to learn was the reason for the examinations they were doing. The first round, at least. The next ones would test the examinees on how they would react to certain circumstances and how athletic and fit they were- because you never knew when an emergency would come up and the adviser would need to run to keep up with the ebony hedgehog as he dealt with it. Metal Sonic didn't attack often, but when he did, he was very organized and sometimes fatal. It was why Omega was nowhere to be seen. He had become the weapons expert in GUN and had gone out of the protective wall surrounding headquarters to fight off a crowd of robots that had been sent by Metal Sonic. This had apparently been Metal Sonic's plan, since the robots had quickly overpowered Omega, and had shut him down and carried him away before Shadow could respond to the alert and make it there from the castle. No one had been able to find him yet.

Of course, Shadow was determined to find him. There was the obvious fact that Omega was one of his closest friends- possibly _the_ closest friend he had, since Rouge had passed away long ago. There was also the fact that, without Omega, the kingdom's safety was seriously compromised. Shadow was extremely powerful, but no matter how fast he ran or even teleported, he simply could not be in two places at once. Metal Sonic hadn't attacked with more than a few raids since then, but there was still Eggman Nega. Eggman Nega resided in the Sol Dimension, and was the descendant of the original Eggman Nega, who was the alternate version of the Chaos Dimension's Dr. Eggman. He attacked more openly and more often than Metal Sonic, but normally wasn't nearly as good at planning as the robot, and his plots and schemes always failed and sent him packing back to his own dimension. It had gotten much harder to fight him without Omega, though, and his last scheme had sent Shadow to the infirmary to get his arm patched up from a stray Sol Energy blast he hadn't dodged.

Shadow was still mad at himself for that. It should have been easy to dodge that blast- never mind the literal hundreds of other blasts raining around him that he was trying to dodge also, while aiming for the main machine of Nega's to turn it off. It should have been easy.

Could it be that he was getting... old?

Suddenly Shadow was brought out of his thoughts with the thudding of feet running towards him. His ear twitched at the noise, and then the elderly mouse administrator from earlier skidded to a stop in front of him. Shadow pulled himself from his slightly frightening wonderings and gave the mouse an attentive look. The mouse was wearing his royal red robes, with his brown fuzzy paws peeking from underneath the hem, and his tail dragging tiredly along the floor. The short fur on his head was ruffled, and his mouth was hanging open, wheezing a bit and revealing his buck teeth. His green eyes were squinted a bit against the brightness of the sunlight, as it was beginning to wane at this time, and therefore was at its brightest point. Upon seeing Shadow's look, the mouse straightened into attention, forcing his tail to perk up a little bit despite his exhaustion, and saluting with his hand to his head.

"What is it, Peregrin?" Shadow asked.

"W-we... um..." the mouse gasped, then took a deep breath and spoke a little clearer. "We have a little situation in the radar room, sir."

Shadow sighed and stood up. He turned and look up at the sleeping hedgehog still in the tree. "Silver!" he yelled.

The hedgehog leaped in the air in shock, falling face-first towards the floor. Inches from the ground, he activated his chaos-telekinesis and stopped. Silver blinked for a minute. Then he slowly moved himself into an upright position and smiled sheepishly at Shadow. "Yes, sir?"

"Follow me," Shadow replied. "We're heading to the radar room." Silver nodded, and with a glance towards Peregrin followed Shadow back to the castle. The mouse looked at the hedgehogs, then at the spot where Silver had fallen, then back at the retreating hedgehogs, and ran quickly to catch up.

Ten minutes later, the trio walked through a set of large double doors into a larger room that seemed much smaller than it was, although only because dozens of workers were running in circles and crowds around monitors and computers. One humongous screen hung against one wall, and around it were slightly smaller screens, with each screen showing a different angle of the castle and kingdom. Desks and keyboards stood by filled with switches and dials and buttons, so complex that only brains like that of Tails or Shadow could possibly understand it. Thankfully, at this day and age, those brains came along a bit more often. Seeing all the computers, Silver immediately headed to the big screen and looked up at it with big eyes. He always was attracted to shiny things. Shadow glanced at him and rolled his eyes.

Peregrin led the ebony hedgehog to one of the metal tables, where a keyboard and monitor sat, with a highly detailed radar on screen. The radar appeared to be a blinking map, with shapes of buildings and actual figures of people instead of merely red or white dots, as the ancient radars had used. Peregrin stood nervously by while Shadow took a look at the readings. They showed a cluster of angular figures- contrasting greatly with the smoother figures of the average animal or human- heading straight for the castle.

"Robots..." Shadow mumbled. Silver turned around and gasped.

"Y-yes sir," the mouse said. "It looks like a raiding party. And our computer registered the one in front as unit K0389." Peregrin gulped as he said this, and Shadow growled. Silver rushed over to them and looked at the radar himself.

Silver pointed at the screen. "Sir, isn't that"-

"Metal Knuckles." Shadow finished.

**Okay, I know we haven't finished the flashback, but this chapter was getting really long (at least for me), so I decided to stop it here. I'll have to continue the past tense in the next chapter, and hopefully I'll get back to the present with Scathe and Gordon soon. Plus, I have a few other ideas for a different story in my head, so I need some feedback from the readers for this:**

**1. Do you like this chapter's length? If not, shorter or longer? I know my first chapter length sucked because it was so short, and I want to make a _good_ story, so please tell me what length would be best.**

**2. Do you think I should only do two stories at a time like I said, or can I make one other and not take forever getting chapters out? I already take a long time, and I'm really sorry for that. If I have three stories out, though, there's more of a chance that I'll have inspiration for at least _one_ when I work on a chapter. I don't want to have more than two or three at a time, though.**

**Also, I have no idea what Metal Knuckles' unit number is. I tried looking for it, but Concept Mobius is down and glitchy and the Sonic News Network doesn't say. If you know, please tell me! And, lastly, the Chaos Dimension is the normal Sonic dimension. Since the Sol Dimension is named for its emeralds, I decided it was reasonable to do the same with Sonic's dimension.**

**Please R & R, and God Bless!**


	5. Chapter 5- Metal Knuckles' Troop

**Sorry if I made anyone think I wasn't continuing this! Yes, I started another story, but I was getting really excited about it and wanted to put it up. It's not related to this story, so basically I'm going to have two different Sonic universes I'm writing about. Three stories at once means that there's more of a chance I'll get inspired for one and put up a new chapter, though. Just remember, I do it when I actually do get inspired so it's not a chore and it'll come out nicer, and I'm a huge procrastinator about doing this sort of thing, so it might take a while. Sorry about that.**

**To answer a review I got, for anyone wondering the same thing: Yes, this is the real Silver. No, Blaze is not from the future. According to the Sonic News Network, and Concept Mobius, and Sonic Rush, she is from the Sol Dimension, which is an alternate dimension to Sonic's one. She and Silver met somehow during Sonic 06, but never met after the game was erased (this is explained by Ian Flyn [I think that's his name] who works with the Sonic comics. I haven't read the comics in a long time for personal issues, and I don't like Sonic 06 anyways, so I'm glad it's erased). The first actual time they supposedly met after this was in Sonic Colors. However, Blaze might have some sort of glimpse or remnant memory of the erased timeline, since she was surprised to be in Crisis City again in Sonic Generations. But she is still from the Sol Dimension, not from the future. Hence her being mentioned as the "Blaze of old" who Silver met in the past.**

**Hope this answer's anyone's questions! If you have more, feel free to review. ^^**

Shadow and Silver stood at the edge of the capital city, waiting for any sign of robots. Shadow had an armband on with a special communicator device linked to the radar room. So far, there was no sign of even a normal animal or human moving around by the gate. One would think that maybe they caught sight of the raiding party and ran off, but then, wouldn't there be some sign of the robots themselves? All was quiet in the late afternoon. It was much too quiet.

"Those robots have gotten too good at hiding themselves..." Shadow mumbled. He lifted his armband to his mouth. "Peregrin, do you still have their signatures?" Next to him, Silver stood facing the gate, squinting out into the distance over what looked like the Green Hill Zone.

The mouse's nervous voice protruded through the speakers, "Yes sir... I mean, we still have their general signatures that tell they're in the area, but their personal signatures have gone off the radar. I don't know exactly where they are compared to your position."

Shadow sighed. He hoped this wouldn't cut too much into his time. It looked like it probably would. "Get Gordon Crane in there. Have him secure the area where the examinees are working. I don't want them to know what's going on, but they need have escorts in and out of the building."

"On it, sir," Peregrin replied. On the other side of the armband, he was standing by the radar screen they had looked at earlier and wringing his hands. He looked up at one of the other radar workers nearby. "Rakowski!" he said with authority. Rakowski, who happened to be a young human, turned and faced Peregrin dutifully. Secretly, he was trying not to laugh. Everyone knew that the mouse was scared of his own shadow; Rakowski couldn't take him seriously when he tried to act with authority.

"Go and retrieve Gordon Crane from the examination room for the adviser applicants." Peregrin ordered. Rakowski saluted and marched off, hiding a smirk.

Back at the gate, Shadow and Silver had begun to circle around the area they had last seen the robots on their radar. The plaza by the gate was a large circle of houses and a couple of stores, and there were multiple crisscrossing alleyways that connected to the main road and the rest of the capital. Silver floated a few inches off the ground so he wouldn't make any noise, and Shadow used his air skates, being naturally silent. They had just started their second lap around the plaza when Silver found something.

The white hedgehog motioned Shadow over with his hand and pointed to something glittering on the ground. He knelt down to get a closer look. It was a small metal disk, the same shade of blue as the energy-bar roads common to the city. Neither hedgehog would have noticed it if not for the metallic shimmer it gave off.

Shadow put his fingers around it and attempted to pull it off the ground. It wouldn't budge. Silver held out his hand and a turquoise Chaos Energy glow surrounded the disk. He started pulling his hand back, but still the disk was stuck. The force of the pulling made that section of road begin to crack and sizzle with electricity.

"Silver, stop, before you break the road," Shadow whispered. Silver murmured an apology and let down his hand. Shadow held up his armband again, rotating his hand so it faced the disk. "Peregrin," he called softly.

"Yes, sir?" came Peregrin's voice, a bit too loudly.

"Shh!" Shadow hissed. "The robots have been here. I need to scan this object, but it won't come up."

"Sorry, sir," Peregrin said much more softly. "Try holding the armband over the object and pressing the orange tab on the side." Shadow did so, and a soft green light flowed out of the tip of the armband. It slid up and down and covered the disk before fading. There was a quiet beeping noise, and then Peregrin said, "I got the readings. It appears to be some sort of mapping device. I think it creates blueprints of the area for a mile or so around."

"Only a mile?" asked Silver. "The city's much larger than that."

"Yes, it is," Shadow agreed. "Thank you, Peregrin. Come on, Silver." He stood up and fired a Chaos Spear at the disk. Just as he feared, the road broke its energy field and caused the hedgehogs to fall down about a foot to the dirt floor beneath. Shadow didn't seem to care anymore, though. He started walking away from the plaza. "I just hope that thing didn't transmit its data before I destroyed it," he said to himself. Silver glanced back at the place where the disk had been and gulped. Then he ran after Shadow.

The hedgehogs dashed in a circle around the perimeter of the city. They scanned all around for any other disks that might be hidden anywhere else, and found at least ten. Every few minutes Shadow would ask again if Peregrin had gotten a lock on the robots, and he would always say that the signal was jammed. Finally, they made it back all the way around to the front gate of the city.

Shadow stood in the center of the plaza with a frustrated frown on his face. "Strange," he said bluntly.

"Yeah!" Silver agreed, hovering over to stand next to him. "We've looked all over the city and found tons of those disks, but no robots. Are they even still in the city?"

"Yes," Peregrin replied over the speakers. "I still have their general signatures. Frankly, I'm worried, sir. This doesn't seem right."

At that moment, there was a creaking noise behind them. They spun around and saw one of the crates stacked behind a store topple over. Silver started to walk there, but Shadow held him back. A scrape came from behind them. They turned and saw the edge of a form disappear around the corner. Silver gave Shadow a worried look. Shadow warily scanned the area for any more noises, but for the moment all was silent again.

"Peregrin." Shadow was whispering again. "I think we're surrounded. Put the city under indirect lock-down and be alert for any calls for backup. I repeat, don't let anyone know what's going on. I don't want people freaking out on us."

"Right, sir," Peregrin whispered back.

Silver gasped and gave Shadow a vicious tap on the arm, pointing. Shadow looked and growled low. In between two of the buildings stood a red robot built like an echidna, with two silver claws instead of fingers and glowing green eyes. His arms were crossed and he stood still as a statue staring at the hedgehogs. Somehow, within his glowing eyes, there was a shimmer of arrogance.

The robot lowered his head slightly, as if in greeting. "We meet again, your _highness," _he said mockingly, his voice robotic and low. "Going for a walk on this fine day? I hear tell you're looking for a new adviser. Maybe I could apply?" He laughed a deep, grating, mechanical crow.

Shadow got into a fighting stance. "What are you doing here, Metal Knuckles? Trying to make a map of the city so you can ambush it?"

Silver quickly copied Shadow, his hands glowing as he posed. "We destroyed all your mapping disks! You might as well leave before we destroy you, too!"

Metal Knuckles laughed again. "Don't worry, I'll go back to Metal Sonic soon. I've got all I needed." He stretched out one arm and turned his hand over so that the yellow circle in the center was facing upwards. A holographic image sprang out, showing a three-dimensional map of the city. The map had some blank or fuzzy spots where the data hadn't been gathered, but it had enough information to get the jist of the area. Shadow clenched his fists. They hadn't gotten all the disks in time! Metal Knuckles turned off the holograph and got into a fighting stance. "But first... a little fun." As he said this, eight other robots jumped out from where they had been hiding all around the plaza. They, too, got in fighting stances.

Two of them jumped at Silver, tackling him to the ground. Silver grabbed them with his telekinesis and lifted them up to throw them, but another robot jumped him from behind and made him lose concentration. Shadow moved in to help, but Metal Knuckles shot in front of him. The two proceeded to duel each other; they leaped around in circles in the classic Sonic fashion, zooming in on each other for attacks when they saw an opening. Silver continued to try to throw robots off of himself.

All eight of the robots were focusing on him. When he threw three off, five more took their place. They all came from different directions, so it was hard to concentrate on all of them at once. He tried to hover into the air so he could see them from above, but some would then rocket ahead of him or go outside of his peripheral vision. These kinds of robots wouldn't have been any danger at all in Sonic's time, being average Egg-Robos, but Metal Sonic had the foresight to install much higher levels of weaponry into them instead of the simple and inferior lasers and mini-torpedoes that the original Eggman had seemed so obsessed with using. Whenever Silver lost his concentration for a second, they were on him, firing all of their attacks with all their might.

Metal Knuckles had learned since Shadow had fought him last. The last time was the day Omega disappeared. Metal Knuckles stalled Shadow to keep him from coming as backup, but had gotten himself pretty beat up in the process. After all, you don't just go to fight the Ultimate Lifeform unprepared. But now he was smarter. He didn't just dive for Shadow and hope to dodge his attacks. He waited until just after the hedgehog had thrown a Chaos Spear or tried a Chaos Blast, when he was still slightly worn out for a second as his power inhibitors caught up. Then he attacked. It got so that Shadow stopped going for the offense, aiming for the defense. This was just what Metal Knuckles wanted, though. If he was defending himself, he wasn't looking out for Silver.

Silver was backed against a wall. Four robots dove for him, and he threw them away. The second he did so, as his focus was on the four, two other robots came forward. They grabbed his arms. Before he could switch his focus to them, a third ran at him and jabbed at his chest. Silver yelled in pain, and kicked off the robot that was clawing him. At the sound of his yell, Shadow spun around to face him. Metal Sonic dove the instant his defense was down. Now it was Shadow's turn to yell, as a sharp pain protruded between the two quills on his back. Metal Knuckles jerked backwards triumphantly, pulling something small and sharp back into the yellow circle of one of his hands.

Silver's eyes widened. He realized they were starting to lose. In a flurry of panic, his focus of Chaos Energy became concentrated. A blue shield appeared around him, and he pushed his palms outward. The shield flung the robots around him away with such force that they hit the walls around the plaza and stuck there. Metal Knuckles looked around at his troops. Then he yelled, "Retreat! We have what we came for!" He flew out the gate and into the distance, and the eight other robots pulled themselves off the walls and followed. Silver immediately collapsed from exhaustion.

Shadow stood there breathing a little harder than he normally did. He took in the carnage around the plaza. Holes in the walls, electronic roads destroyed, and several crates of store goods unaccounted for. He would have to get a repair team on this. Walking over to Silver, he picked him up and headed back for the castle. "You really need to get those wristbands you wear fitted with power inhibitors," he said. "You lose your energy too easily."

Silver moaned a little in response. He opened his eyes with an effort and glanced at the gate. "What do you think he meant by 'we have what we came for'?"

Shadow shrugged. "He showed us that map he'd gotten before he fought. He was just fighting us for some twisted form of fun."

"I'm not so sure." Silver tried to sit up in Shadow's arms, but ended up going limp. That force field had been _way_ too much for him. "The way he said that _after_ he fought too, when he'd just gotten both of us down, makes it seem like he was after something else. Besides, if he really needed a map of the city, why would the robots have gone all the way around to get it? They could have mapped it themselves."

Shadow blinked. He hadn't thought of that. Silver was probably right; Metal Knuckles had been after something else. Did it have anything to do with that prick he'd given Shadow in his back, or Silver's yell in pain he'd heard? He wasn't sure. He didn't know any way to be sure.

"We may just have to see what happens..." he murmured thoughtfully.

They reached the castle, and Shadow sent Silver to the infirmary to recover. He headed for the radar room.

In the room, workers were still running back and forth frantically to check their stations. Peregrin stood at the one main radar in the center, and Gordon stood impatiently off to the side. It was clear the crane was anxious to be off. Shadow ignored him. "Peregrin."

The mouse looked up and smiled in relief when he saw Shadow. "Oh, good, you're alright. The robots have gone off the radar, by the way."

"I know." Shadow folded his arms and gave Peregrin a stern look. "Why didn't you send backup?"

Peregrin looked surprised, then nervous. "Um, you said to send it when you called for it. You never called, sir."

Shadow raised an eyebrow. "You don't think that Silver's yell counted? Or _mine?_"

Peregrin folded his arms behind him and shifted his feet uncomfortably. Behind him, Gordon began to subtly sneak towards one of the monitors. "Well, I wondered, but I thought that you would have wanted to do this yourself. Like normal. Did you want to change that policy?"

Shadow sighed. He felt like facepalming. "No. But, if you had been listening through the speakers like you _should_ have been, you would have realized that Metal Knuckles and his troop had taken some valuable information with them. I could have used some scouts on hand to stop them from leaving the gate, or to at least take Silver to the infirmary for me, which _I_ had to do." Peregrin looked more uncomfortable. Gordon made it to the monitor he was sneaking towards and pressed some of the keys.

"I- I'm sorry, sir," the mouse said meekly with his ears flattened on his head. "I'll get backup next time. I just assumed assumed that... since you're the Ultimate Lifeform... you could take care of it. Can't you?" Gordon pulled a disk out of the side of the monitor and slid it discreetly into his pocket. He glanced at Shadow, as if interested in what he had to say.

He was silent for a minute. Couldn't he? Shouldn't he? He was made to take care of things like this; to be fast enough and strong enough, with enough stamina. He used to think- to know- that he could do things like this. But, ever since that day when Omega had disappeared, and Shadow hadn't been able to help him...

"I don't know," he said softly. He turned and walked out the door. Peregrin looked shocked. Gordon looked the part as well, but his eyes betrayed a secret giddiness.

The crane went over and stood in front of Peregrin. "Do I have permission to get back to the applicants now?" he asked. He mentally kicked himself for leaving out the stutter.

"Erm... yes," the mouse replied. He was distracted by what had just happened, and didn't even notice Gordon's surprisingly smooth voice. The bird smiled and nodded, leaving the room as fast as he could. He only hoped that Scathe wouldn't be too mad at him for being so late...

**Of course, we all know what the answer to that is!**

**Poor widdle Shadow. He's all sad and stuff. **

**I finally got the flashback done. The next chapter will be in the present again. Well, future present anyways. I think this one turned out a little better than the last. What do you think? Also, I've decided that my limit on chapters from now on will be at least 3,000 words. That will give a bit of meat to the story, hopefully. And I've never done a battle scene in detail like that before. Did it turn out okay?**

**By the way, the electronic road thing was taken from the ones in Future City in Sonic Heroes and Sonic Riders.**

**Again, sorry for my procrastinating issues. Besides putting the story off, I have a lot of work and games that I do that take a bunch of time. Hopefully it won't be too long before I get the next chapter out.**

**Please R&R, and God Bless!**


	6. Chapter 6- Dangerous Targets

**Guys, I am sooooo sorry I've been gone so long! I'll try to update a little sooner, but I can't promise anything. This is harder than I thought.**

**So, anyways, in this chapter things will be back in the present/future instead of the flashback/future. Things should be moving on now. Just to let you know, I'm sort of making a bunch of this up as I go along. I know the ending and several big scenes, but I've got to figure out how to get there.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but what I own.**

"So, you see, even King Shadow's doubting himself. And, I've taken the liberty of placing you in the highest rank for the last examination," the crane finished, folding his hands together and trying to look the picture of loyalty to the cat in front of him. "Unless someone is able to somehow gain very high favor with the king in the next month, then as the old folks say, it's in the bag."

Scathe squinted at Gordon, something between a growl of impatience and a purr of pleasure seeping through his snobbishly smiling mouth. "Well, of course it's in the bag! No one could possibly gain higher favor than _I_ would. Politics is in my blood!" He began to pace back and forth between the chairs in the great hall they stood in, his hissing growing louder in a rant. "I shall gain the position for sure! All of Earth will welcome me with open arms, and I shall lead in the rebellion, right under their king's nose! They will never know what hit them! Their enemies and our allies will tear this kingdom apart, leaving a _conveniently_ open spot where the Not-So-Ultimate Lifeform used to be..."

Gordon worked hard to keep his composure. He had heard this rant many times before. It might have been just him, but the speech seemed to get louder each time. Then he jerked upright as Scathe spun around to face him. The cat grabbed his collar and held him close. "At least, there _will_ be a conveniently open spot as long as _someone_ sticks to the plan and doesn't let a certain _cat_ out of the _bag_ he is supposedly _in_."

The crane stammered a little bit- a completely real tremor born of fear, as oppose to his acting voice. "O-of course, sir! I would never let the c-cat... um, meaning you... out of the bag... meaning the plan..."

Scathe rolled his eyes. "Yes, and meaning you would mysteriously become MIA." He let Gordon go and continued to pace. The pale bird fell onto the floor and rubbed his neck in an attempt to loosen his collar up. He shouldn't be so surprised. This grilling had been going on ever since he'd spoken almost too loudly right in front of the king earlier that day. He was just glad that Shadow had been so busy daydreaming, and hadn't noticed. Scathe never bluffed a threat.

The pacing went on for a few more minutes. This time it was silent, only marred by a feline purr or growl as the cat brooded. He seemed to do that a lot. It sometimes made Gordon wonder if Scathe did it naturally, or if it was done on purpose to make him seem like a more dramatic villain. Not that he could ever ask him that without fear of the repercussions, of course...

The embroidered shoes padded back and forth, back and forth. Then suddenly they stopped, and the owner again spun toward his lackey. "I suppose I shall have to wait until tomorrow's examination before we continue with the rest of the plan. What's the next course?"

Gordon had to hold back the breath of relief that nearly burst out of his beak. It had been a last minute idea for him earlier that day to check out what tomorrow's course was. He was now very glad he did. "It's a situational review, sir. The most minor one. It's multiple choice, and it only covers hypothetical instances that one would encounter in everyday life. The two later ones will be much harder, essay format, with instances more closely related to advising for the king."

"Yes, yes, good." Scathe turned and walked towards the exit doors. "Do give me a good score, would you? Not that I wouldn't ace it myself, but I have much more important things to do than to take a simple test. Kingly things. Royal things. Make sure you mark one or two questions slightly lower in points so they won't get suspicious." He opened the heavily decorated doors and left without waiting for an answer. When the doors closed, Gordon let loose the air he had been holding. He did wish that cat had picked someone else to work for him sometimes...

Meanwhile, across the city, Kellie had just reached her little house underneath one of the many electrical roads. This road was a literal "highway", placed high above the ground and stretching between several tall buildings. Her house stuck out the side of one building, round and futuristic, its white metal outside shaded red from the road above it. Below it ran a perpendicular blue road, the one that Kellie was traveling on.

She realized that it was late at night and that she would have to get up early the next morning for the examinations. However, the fox had always liked to take her time when she walked. Her late mother had taught her a different variation of that old apple phrase: a walk a day keeps the doctors away! Coming home late wasn't unusual for her.

The steps leading up to her house were electrical, too, and usually Kellie would only need to stand on it before being pulled upwards to her home. Today, though, the steps were strangely dark. They held nothing of their usual blue glow. Frowning in confusion, the vixen placed one foot on the first step. Nothing happened. The other foot stepped up. Something crunched.

Quickly, Kellie bent down and lifted her foot up. Underneath were the remains of what appeared to be some kind of disk. Not much detail could be made out in the dim light. When she ran a finger over the edges, she found cracks and chips coating the surface. There were far too many to have been caused only by her foot. It was as if someone had put this here, and later on someone else came and broke it. Whether the breaking was what shut down her stairs, or the disk itself, Kellie wasn't sure. What she was sure of was that this was something that needed to be brought up with the king tomorrow. Her hand folded over the disk and she slid it into the bag that also held her book she was reading earlier.

What she didn't notice was the dim, almost invisible green light glimmering on the underside of the cracked plastic.

o~o~o~o

The next day, almost all of the people who auditioned before were back again. Only a few had been turned down so far, and that was for having something extreme in their profiles that would make them an obvious bad choice. For example, one man wanted to join Shadow and Eggman Nega together into what he thought would be the most powerful conqueror in the universe. He wasn't just rejected; he was cross-examined and interrogated.

The assembly room was much more packed in than the day before. There were desks placed at intervals throughout the room, spaced so that no one could possibly look off of anyone else's test, and partitioned in a grid. The administrators were still there, with their section on a slightly raised platform so that they could oversee everything. All of the applicants were filing into the room and looking for the desk with their name on it. On the desks were electric pads ready to be typed in, with a "Please Wait," screen on them. It seemed everything was just about ready, except for one problem.

King Shadow wasn't there.

Silver was missing as well, but that wasn't as big of a problem as it was for the king to be absent. The rabbit administrator looked wonderingly at the chair next to him, for Peregrin was also late. The other administrators looked back and forth between the king's seat and the empty chair of the advisory conductor. Even Gordon had vanished.

Kellie sat at her desk in the corner of the room and looked nervously around. Where _was_ King Shadow? She couldn't warn him about the disk she'd found if he wasn't there. The quiz was going to be starting soon. There might not be a chance to bring it up after it was over.

In a way, though, this was a sort of blessing in disguise for her. She hadn't figured out yet how she was going to do this. Kellie was far too shy to just walk up and talk to him. If she wordlessly handed the disk over, he might think she was threatening instead of warning him. She could try attaching a note to it and sending it to him, but how would it get delivered? Everything seemed like a bad idea. The more she thought about it, the more she wondered if she should just keep the disk and not say anything about it at all. She didn't even know what it was.

Maybe it didn't have to be handed over right away. If she brought it back home, there was a chance she could study it some and figure out what it was. At the very least, she could figure out a little more about it, maybe what broke it and if it was fully broken or not. During that time, she could also work on how to make contact with King Shadow. Yes, that sounded much more reasonable than trying to do it today. With a little sigh of relief, Kellie gently patted her purse, which held both her book and the disk. Unbeknownst to her, the disk glowed just a little bit brighter at the pat.

After a few more minutes, the blue rabbit hesitantly stood up to address the people. He anxiously fiddled with one of his red sleeves and turned his hazel eyes back toward the empty chair beside him before speaking. "Um, it looks as if several of our administrators are a few minutes late. There's no cause for alarm- I'm sure nothing's wrong. Peregrin and Gordon probably forgot to set their alarms again." He smiled thinly, obviously not believing that. "We're working things out from here. This is no reason to postpone the test, however. It's simple enough. Just answer the questions on the pad before you as they appear. You can't go back, so think carefully. Once you're done, raise your hand and a member of security will come and escort you out, same as yesterday. You'll also raise your hand if you have any questions. That is all."

He sat back down. On the other side of him from Peregrin's chair was Edna Millers. She turned casually to him as if she were about to start a conversation. While her face looked calm, her whispered voice was absolutely not. "What the heck is going on, Rodney? Where are they? They're never this late to anything!"

Rodney's ears folded down in displeasure despite his attempts to look calm. "I don't know! I keep trying to page them all, but they don't answer." As he said this he was holding another pad under the table and repeatedly pressing buttons on it. "If it was an emergency, we'd be the first ones told. That's the only reason I'm not cancelling this test."

"Well, I hope you're right, and this isn't a big deal..." Edna shook her head and gave a frustrated sigh. "I just wonder what's taking them so long..."

In fact, Peregrin and Gordon had not forgotten to set their alarms. In reality, they both had very different important missions to attend to.

Gordon was in the apartment he lived in, inside the castle. Since he was in charge of selecting someone so close to the king, he got to live in close proximity to the king, as well. The crane was at his dining table hurriedly reprogramming his pad. He accessed the list of applicants, selecting Scathe from the top of the list. Then he hacked into the test questions assigned for that day. There were one hundred questions, and it took some time to input the answer for all of them, even with the list of answers on a printed paper next to him. He put two of the questions on their second and third best answers. It probably would have looked less suspicious if he did that to at least four questions, but Scathe would have his head if he lowered more than two.

On the other end of the castle, Peregrin was worriedly dashing around the radar room, keeping tabs on everything that was going on in the city. Since the raid the day before, he'd barely gotten a moment's rest. One second he was looking at the main radar to see if there were any more robots sighted. The next second he was checking the security cameras that were set to the areas the map-making machines had been placed in, making sure they weren't doing anything more and that no civilian had gotten suspicious. It might not have been so bad if he hadn't still been somewhat in shock over what Shadow said. If _he_ wasn't sure if he could handle it anymore, was anyone in the city safe? In the world? King Shadow had been there since long before Peregrin was born. The poor nervous mouse wasn't sure what to think anymore.

While he kept tabs with the city, he also glanced over at some mechanics at one of the large tables in the room. They were dissecting one of the little disk machines that had been recovered with less damage to figure out how it worked, and how much information Metal Knuckles had gotten. So far they hadn't found anything too surprising. It had a detailed scanner and holographic image retainer. It could capture statistics down to the dot. However, there was one aspect to the scanner that Peregrin had found a little disturbing.

As the mouse rushed over to see the mechanics' progress again, the doors opened. He spun around and jumped. "Your highness!" Apparently the king had taken a similar stance to the mouse and decided that this was more important than going to the adviser exams at the moment.

Shadow stood in the doorway, his arms crossed. He looked much more his usual gruff self, aside from the bandage on his back that could barely be seen underneath his cape, and the slight glint of discomfort in his eyes. Peregrin hoped this was a good sign. "I trust you're feeling better today, sir?" he asked cautiously.

The hedgehog gave him a look that said he really did _not_ want to talk about it. "I'm fine," he muttered sternly.

Peregrin nodded and resolved not to say anything more about it. "There've been no more raider sightings since yesterday. Also, some of our mechanics have made a few discoveries about those machines the robots placed around the city."

"Let me see," Shadow demanded, and the mouse nodded and led him over to the table. The mechanics- a dog, a gecko, and a young man- stepped aside as he drew near.

The gecko handed Shadow a pad filled with blueprints. "Here's what we've found so far, sir," he explained. "It's got your basic memory retaining unit and facial and building recognizer, and a highly calibrated scanner and holo-erector. All that's perfect material for building an extremely detailed map of the city."

The king frowned deeply at the blueprints. "It looks like he's planning an all-out invasion..." he said thoughtfully.

"There's more, sir," Peregrin added. Shadow looked up sharply.

The dog quietly stepped over and pressed a couple of keys in the pad. The screen changed to black, with blue, green, and pink markings on it. One very large red blot stood close to the center of the image. The red blot was punctuated by a white blinking square. "What am I looking at?" Shadow asked after a second.

"It's a sensor," the dog replied. "I thought it was a heat sensor at first, but it wouldn't react any different to ice than it would to a hot cup of coffee. We finally got it to change colors when we tried putting it near that Chaos Emerald we have in storage. It senses Chaos Energy. So then we thought that Metal Sonic wanted to take our Chaos Emerald. However, if that were the case, a scanner and map-maker with these capabilities should lock onto the target and send the information away. It might have masked the lock signal from us, but the piece that would have hidden the signal is already shattered. We know it has the mechanism for locking on- I saw it myself- but for some reason, it didn't consider the Chaos Emerald to be its target."

Shadow's frown deepened. "Then what is?"

This time the young man answered. "That's what we were wondering a minute ago. Until you walked in." He pointed to the red blot with the white square. "That's you. The white blinking square means that it's locked on."

Time seemed to freeze at that moment. The Ultimate Lifeform was the target. It had targeted him by recognizing his level of Chaos Energy. All the possibilities for what this could mean rushed through his mind, none of them pleasant. He snapped out of it when he remembered who else might be targeted, if it was sensing Chaos Energy levels.

"Continue working here," he said, and abruptly turned for the door. A quick look around told him that there was no one else in the hallway. Loud _whiirrrrs_ filled the air when he activated his air skates and sped down the hall. He might have teleported, but he preferred to save his Chaos Control for when there was absolute immediate danger.

Seconds later, he burst into the infirmary. It was empty save for the white hedgehog resting in one of the beds. Silver cracked open an eye when he heard the skates hiss to a stop. He tried to sit up when he saw who had come in. It took some effort, since he didn't have all of his energy back yet. There was a bandage wrapped around his chest where he'd gotten stabbed yesterday. He gave the newcomer a tired smile. Shadow didn't return it.

Silver's smile wavered when he saw that the ebony hedgehog's face was far more serious than normal. "What's wrong?"

"You were right about Metal Knuckles wanting something else." Shadow cut right to the chase. "Those disks sense Chaos Energy as well as create maps. They had apparently targeted me for my levels. If they targeted me, they probably targeted you as well."

"But, they were destroyed, right?" Silver asked. "We destroyed all the ones we could find."

"That didn't stop them from transmitting the map data," Shadow countered. "Whatever they might have wanted to get from targeting us, they might already have it. Or they might be receiving it, if the disks weren't completely destroyed. The one getting dissected in the radar room wasn't."

The pale hedgehog now looked much paler for worry. "So... what you're saying is, we could be in big trouble."

Shadow nodded. "Anyone who got targeted by those disks could be. Probably is. Silver, we _are_ in big trouble."

For the Ultimate Lifeform, that was a huge thing to admit. If he said they were in big trouble, then they were in big, big trouble. They just didn't know what it was yet.

Gordon finally made it to the examination assembly room, sitting down in his chair next to Edna. She turned to him with a mixture of surprise and anger. "Where were you?"

The crane smiled and showed her his pad, which had smaller images of the other pads testing in the room. "Just putting some finishing touches on the application I needed to make sure no one cheated in the test." Edna squinted at the screen then nodded slowly, still a bit miffed, but satisfied. Gordon smirked inwardly. _Just making sure no one cheats but me..._

On the testing floor, Kellie diligently answered the questions she was given. They didn't seem too hard. It was just asking what you would do if your friends were fighting, or if you were given too much change in the store, or something like that. She felt that she was getting at least an okay score so far.

In her purse, the little machine continued to glow...

**Finally! Boy, what a workout that was. This time I've outlined some of what's going to happen in note format, so hopefully it won't take so long to update next time. Again, I'm really sorry about that. And has anyone noticed my three Lord of the Rings references I've put in?**

**Please read, review, and give me some constructive criticism! God Bless!**


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